


Cuddly

by velocitygrass



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: mcfleece, M/M, Pre-Het, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-24
Updated: 2007-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-20 00:54:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1490716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/velocitygrass/pseuds/velocitygrass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Why did we never see Rodney's orange fleece in the Pegasus Galaxy?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cuddly

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the LJ community mcfleece.

"Oops, so sorry."

John peeked around the portable greenhouse that had just run into him. An auburn-haired woman appeared from behind it.

"It's a bit hard to see where you're going. Are you all right?" she asked, looking him over as if she could somehow check for bruises like that.

"I'll live," he said with an easy smile.

She smiled back as if she wanted to thank him for forgiving her attack.

"Hey you!"

John had only been with the expedition for a short time, but he'd recognize that voice anywhere. Besides there was only one person around who'd "address" people like that. He knew it would be McKay, even before he turned towards him with a smirk.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the woman next to him turning to McKay as well and suddenly straightening up.

"Dr. McKay," she said with a nervous smile. "It was an accident. Dr. Leicester wanted to help me, but he has to..."

John bit the inside of his lip to keep from smiling. McKay was staring at her as if she was crazy. She gulped and smiled helplessly. McKay just shook his head and turned to John.

"Lab six in ten minutes," he said, pointing his finger at John.

Then he was off again without another look. They both looked after the retreating vision in orange.

"You work with Dr. McKay?" the woman next to him asked once McKay was out of sight.

John turned to her and he sensed...he wasn't sure what in her question.

"Sometimes," he said vaguely.

She nodded understandingly. "He's a very busy man. I mean he hardly has time for the department heads, oh I'm Katie Brown by the way, head of the biology department."

She stuck out her hand and John shook it politely. "John Sheppard." He didn't say anything else.

"We had so many questions that were always pushed aside in the meetings, and it's quite difficult to find a moment with him to discuss anything. He's..."

"Arrogant and rude?" John supplied. Those were two of the more polite things he'd heard McKay referred to since he'd arrived.

"God, no!" She looked scandalized. "I mean, I suppose his attitude can seem a bit...alienating to some people, but he usually is right, and who knows what we'll have to deal with on the other side, so I think we should be able to handle someone who's a bit...rough."

She looked in the direction where McKay had disappeared to, and her expression became softer.

John suddenly found himself annoyed—on McKay's behalf. He had to admit that he liked McKay's attitude, and he doubted that McKay would appreciated this...romanticization of it.

"He can be a real pain," John said.

"But that's just how he appears," she assured him.

John wondered how well exactly she knew McKay. He'd spent much of his time on the Outpost with McKay, and it already seemed to him like he knew him forever, which had never really happened to John before. The idea that he'd somehow gotten it all wrong didn't sit well with him.

"I'm sure he has a softer side," she continued. "In that orange sweater, he looks positively cuddly."

Both her and John's eyes widened.

"I can't believe I just said that," she stammered to herself. "I'll have to go now, run over some more innocent bystanders." She smiled self-consciously. "Don't tell Dr. McKay what I said," she said with a pleading note in her voice.

"I won't," he promised, forcing a smile to his face.

She nodded gratefully and began pushing her greenhouse again.

John looked after her, trying to ignore the uneasy feeling in his gut. He found it hard to believe that McKay was dating her. And maybe he wasn't. She'd asked John not to tell him about it after all. Although that could simply be because McKay probably wouldn't like being referred to as "cuddly".

He tried to picture hugging McKay. He imagined his arms around that warm fleece and McKay making the noises he made when he got a cup of freshly brewed coffee.

John suddenly felt warm all over.

"He's _not_ cuddly," he muttered to himself, shaking the image from his mind, and went off to join McKay in lab six.

~~

When he was done switching on or off devices for McKay and they'd packed everything up, John spotted the uniform jacket that hung in the lab.

"You still have to dress," he told McKay, nodding towards it.

"Oh right." McKay got out of his orange fleece, and John suddenly found himself offering to take it. McKay frowned for a second, then handed it over and put on his uniform jacket. "We have to make sure that all of these go with us through the gate," he said, pointing at the boxes they'd just packed. "I hope Zelenka has taken care of lab five. I better check on him. And I still have to prepare the ZPM." He went off, without waiting for John. "I really have to do everything myself."

John stepped out of the lab, still carrying McKay's fleece, and ordered two marines to take the boxes to the gate room and be extra careful with them.

When they were out, he looked at the fleece in his hand. He forced down the insane urge to lift it to his face and breathe in. An image of Dr. Brown's dreamy face flashed through his mind.

He went to a corner of the lab and stuffed the fleece behind a lab table.

~~

"Have you seen my fleece jacket," McKay asked him before they went through the gate.

"Why?"

"I wanted to take it with me. You never know what will be on the other side."

John looked at McKay. He seemed more nervous than John had ever seen him. Which was quite understandable really.

"You'll be fine," John assured him, lightly bumping his shoulder.

McKay looked at him, the corner of his mouth curving up almost imperceptibly.

John smiled back.

He'd take care of McKay. And if it was cold on the other side, John had a collection of warm sweaters that he'd share with him.


End file.
